Mark Steyn: Lessons for us from London in flames

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 08: A rioter throws a rock at riot police in Clarence Road in Hackney on August 8, 2011 in London, England. Pockets of rioting and looting continues to take place in various boroughs of London this evening, as well as in Birmingham, prompted by the initial rioting in Tottenham and then in Brixton on Sunday night. It has been announced that the Prime Minister David Cameron and his family are due to return home from their summer holiday in Tuscany, Italy to respond to the rioting. Disturbances broke out late on Saturday night in Tottenham and the surrounding area after the killing of Mark Duggan, 29 and a father-of-four, by armed police in an attempted arrest on August 4. Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images

The trick in this business is not to be right too early. A week ago I released my new book – the usual doom 'n' gloom stuff – and, just as the sensible prudent moderate chaps were about to dismiss it as hysterical and alarmist, Standard & Poor's went and downgraded the United States from its AAA rating for the first time in history. Obligingly enough they downgraded it to AA+, which happens to be the initials of my book: After America. Okay, there's not a lot of "+" in that, but you can't have everything.

But the news cycle moves on, and a day or two later, the news shows were filled with scenes of London ablaze, as gangs of feral youths trashed and looted their own neighborhoods. Several readers wrote to taunt me for not having anything to say on the London riots. As it happens, Chapter Five of my book is called "The New Britannia: The Depraved City." You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me to Western Civilization's descent into barbarism. Anyone who's read it will fully understand what's happening on the streets of London. The downgrade and the riots are part of the same story: Big Government debauches not only a nation's finances but its human capital, too.

As part of my promotional efforts, I chanced to find myself on a TV show the other day with an affable liberal who argued that what Obama needed to do was pass another trillion-dollar – or, better yet, multi-trillion – stimulus. I think not. The London rioters are the children of dependency, the progeny of Big Government: they have been marinated in "stimulus" their entire lives. There is literally nothing you can't get Her Majesty's Government to pay for. From page 205 of my book:

"A man of 21 with learning disabilities has been granted taxpayers' money to fly to Amsterdam and have sex with a prostitute."

Hey, why not? "He's planning to do more than just have his end away," explained his social worker. "Refusing to offer him this service would be a violation of his human rights."

Why do they need a Dutch hooker? Just another hardworking foreigner doing the jobs Britons won't do? Given the reputation of English womanhood, you'd have thought this would be the one gig that wouldn't have to be outsourced overseas.

While the British Treasury is busy writing checks to Amsterdam prostitutes, one-fifth of children are raised in homes in which no adult works – in which the weekday ritual of rising, dressing and leaving for gainful employment is entirely unknown. One-tenth of the adult population has done not a day's work since Tony Blair took office on May 1, 1997.

If you were born into such a household, you've been comprehensively "stimulated" into the dead-eyed zombies staggering about the streets this past week: pathetic inarticulate subhumans unable even to grunt the minimal monosyllables to BBC interviewers desperate to appease their pathologies. C'mon, we're not asking much: just a word or two about how it's all the fault of government "cuts" like the leftie columnists argue. And yet even that is beyond these baying beasts. The great-grandparents of these brutes stood alone against a Fascist Europe in that dark year after the fall of France in 1940. Their grandparents were raised in one of the most peaceful and crime-free nations on the planet. Were those Englishmen of the mid-20th century to be magically transplanted to London today, they'd assume they were in some fantastical remote galaxy. If Charlton Heston was horrified to discover the Planet of the Apes was his own, Britons are beginning to realize that the remote desert island of "Lord Of The Flies" is, in fact, located just off the coast of Europe in the northeast Atlantic. Within two generations of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain, a significant proportion of the once-free British people entrusted themselves to social rewiring by liberal compassionate Big Government and thereby rendered themselves paralytic and unemployable save for nonspeaking parts in "Rise of The Planet Of The Apes." And even that would likely be too much like hard work.

Here's another line from my book:

"In Britain, everything is policed except crime."

Her Majesty's cowed and craven politically correct constabulary stand around with their riot shields and Robocop gear as young rioters lob concrete through store windows to steal the electronic toys which provide their only non-narcotic or alcoholic amusement. I chanced to be in Piccadilly for the springtime riots when the police failed to stop the mob from smashing the windows of the Ritz and other upscale emporia, so it goes without saying that they wouldn't lift a finger to protect less-prestigious private property from thugs. Some of whom are as young as 9 years old. And girls.

Yet a police force all but entirely useless when it comes to preventing crime or maintaining public order has time to police everything else. When Sam Brown observed en passant to a mounted policeman on Cornmarket Street in Oxford, "Do you know your horse is gay?", he was surrounded within minutes by six officers and a fleet of patrol cars, handcuffed, tossed in the slammer overnight, and fined 80 pounds. Mr. Brown's "homophobic comments," explained a spokesmoron for Thames Valley Police, were "not only offensive to the policeman and his horse, but any members of the general public in the area." The zealous crackdown on Sam Brown's hippohomophobia has not been replicated in the present disturbances. Anyone who has so much as glanced at British policing policy over the past two decades would be hard pressed to argue which party on the streets of London, the thugs or the cops, is more irredeemably stupid.

This is the logical dead end of the Nanny State. When William Beveridge laid out his blueprint for the British welfare regime in 1942, his goal was the "abolition of want" to be accomplished by "co-operation between the State and the individual." In attempting to insulate the citizenry from life's vicissitudes, Sir William succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. As I write in my book: "Want has been all but abolished. Today, fewer and fewer Britons want to work, want to marry, want to raise children, want to lead a life of any purpose or dignity." The United Kingdom has the highest drug use in Europe, the highest incidence of sexually transmitted disease, the highest number of single mothers, the highest abortion rate. Marriage is all but defunct, except for William and Kate, fellow toffs, upscale gays and Muslims. From page 204: "For Americans, the quickest way to understand modern Britain is to look at what LBJ's Great Society did to the black family and imagine it applied to the general population."

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LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 08: A rioter throws a rock at riot police in Clarence Road in Hackney on August 8, 2011 in London, England. Pockets of rioting and looting continues to take place in various boroughs of London this evening, as well as in Birmingham, prompted by the initial rioting in Tottenham and then in Brixton on Sunday night. It has been announced that the Prime Minister David Cameron and his family are due to return home from their summer holiday in Tuscany, Italy to respond to the rioting. Disturbances broke out late on Saturday night in Tottenham and the surrounding area after the killing of Mark Duggan, 29 and a father-of-four, by armed police in an attempted arrest on August 4. Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images
People pray for unity in the community, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011 in Tottenham, north London. Britain's riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over a police shooting in north London turned violent. That clash triggered wider lawlessness that police struggled to halt. Across London, and then in cities throughout England, rioters set stores on fire and looted shops for sneakers, bicycles, electronics and leather goods. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Metropolitan Police officers prepare to carry out a raid on a property on the Churchill Gardens estate in Pimlico, London during an operation where police hope to recover property stolen during the recent disturbances in the capital Thursday Aug. 11, 2011. British Prime Minister David Cameron says the government is "acting decisively" to restore order after riots that shocked the country. Cameron told lawmakers that "we will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets." AP Photo/Anthony Devlin/PA Wire
British Prime Minister David Cameron, center, pose with group of young people, who are taking part in 'Not In Our Name' event, on the step of 10 Downing Street in London, Friday, Aug. 12, 2011. The London riots earlier this week have thrown London's youth into the spotlight and the 'Not In Our Name' is a non-political, non-denominational event to give London's young people the chance to talk about what has happened and create a positive response that they can take back to their communities. AP Photo/Sang Tan
Burned cars are seen during civil disturbances in Salford near Manchester, England, Tuesday, Aug. 9 2011. Police in the city of Manchester, in northwestern England, said seven people had been arrested so far, as youths rampaged through the city center, which had not previously been touched by the violence, arson and looting that has swept through London and other major cities since Saturday night. AP Photo/Jon Super
A fire is seen during civil disturbances in Salford near Manchester, England, Tuesday, Aug. 9 2011. Police in the city of Manchester, in northwestern England, said seven people had been arrested so far, as youths rampaged through the city center, which had not previously been touched by the violence, arson and looting that has swept through London and other major cities since Saturday night. AP Photo/Jon Super
In this image from amateur video, a gang of youths in Barking, East London stand around Malaysian accountancy student Mohammed Asyraf Haziq, 20, who had been attacked and mugged in the street by an earlier group during rioting Monday Aug. 8 2011. As one of this group appeared to help Haziq to his feet others took the opportunity to open his backpack and remove other valuables. The video of the attack on Haziq went viral Tuesday Aug 11 and has become one of the most memorable scenes from four days of unrest. So shocking was the robbing of an injured man that Prime Minister David Cameron felt moved to describe it as a sign of a deeper societal malaise in Britain. AP Photo/Abdul Hamid via Sky/ APTN
Police officers restrain a man in Eltham, London, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011. A large group of local men gathered in the area on Wednesday to deter looters and a large number of police officers was also present to prevent any vigilante actions. AP Photo/Matt Dunham
Chief Superintendent Simon Ovens, left, commander of the Westminster Burglary Squad, and another officer apprehend a suspect following a raid by police in an attempt to recover property stolen during the recent civil disturbances. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron promised vigorous and wide-ranging measures to restore order and prevent riots erupting again on Britain's streets - including taking gang-fighting tips from American cities. Cameron told lawmakers there would be no "culture of fear" on Britain's streets, as police raided houses to round up more suspects from four days of rioting and looting in London and other English cities. AP Photo/Nigel Howard/Evening Standard, pool
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron makes a statement to the House of Commons in central London in this image taken from TV Thursday Aug. 11, 2011 . Cameron addressed the House about the recent rioting around England. At left is Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and at right Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. AP Photo/PA
Police officers apprehend a suspect in south London, Thursday Aug. 11, 2011, during a series of raids to recover property stolen during the recent civil disturbances. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron promised vigorous and wide-ranging measures to restore order and prevent riots erupting again on Britain's streets - including taking gang-fighting tips from American cities. Cameron told lawmakers there would be no "culture of fear" on Britain's streets, as police raided houses to round up more suspects from four days of rioting and looting in London and other English cities. AP Photo/Glenn Copus, Evening Standard, pool
Malaysian student Mohammad Asyraf Haziq attends a news conference at the Malaysian High Commission in London, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011. A Malaysian student attacked during London's riots offered an account of his assault, saying he was shocked as he watched the videotape of thugs rifling through his belongings while he bled on a sidewalk. AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth
A priest along with other people prays for unity in the community, near the scene where Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four, was gunned down by police in disputed circumstances a week ago, in Tottenham, north London, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011. Britain's riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over the police shooting turned violent. That clash triggered wider lawlessness that police struggled to halt. Across London, and then in cities throughout England, rioters set stores on fire and looted shops for sneakers, bicycles, electronics and leather goods. AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis

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